One of the latest trends in movies is the return of blaxploitation, or
at least a gentle mocking of it. It was there in Pootie Tang and
(unintentionally) in Bones. The best example by far (but still
not that great) is Undercover Brother, based on the internet series
by John Ridley (Three Kings, Cold
Around the Heart). Undercover Brother (Eddie Griffin, The
New Guy, John Q.) is the coolest
brother around. He sports a sky-high afro, hip clothes, and a cool car.
He is an urban superhero, who fights for the everyday black man. This
attracts the attention of the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D, an organization of
like minded brothers led by The Chief (Chi McBride, Disney's
The Kid, Gone in Sixty Seconds),
who works to thwart the nefarious plots of The Man.

The Man's henchman, Mr. Feather (Chris Kattan, Corky
Romano, Monkeybone) has a
plan to subjugate the black man by brainwashing. The Chief realizes that
the only person who can stop his is Undercover Brother. The problem is
that nobody knows how Mr. Feather is going about his plan. Undercover
Brother and Sistah Girl (Aunjanue Ellis, The
Caveman's Valentine, Men of Honor)
set out to infiltrate Mr. Feather's hideout to discern his plans. Mr.
Feather unleashes White She-Devil (Denise Richards, Valentine,
The World is Not Enough)
to go against Undercover Brother. As a white woman, she is the bane of
the black man, and Undercover Brother's weakness. Most of the movie feels
like a bunch of skits strung together haphazardly, with racial jokes at
the center of each one.

Yes, this movie is dumb, but it is also funny. Ridley wrote the script
with Michael McCullers (Austin Powers:
The Spy Who Shagged Me) is full of stereotypes for blacks as well
as whites. It's just that they approach everything with a light touch.
Undercover Brother doesn't really make fun of these stereotypes,
it revels in them. But never at the expense of the actors. It's more director
Malcolm D. Lee (The Best Man)using them to create bizarrely
funny characters. There really is no depth to any of them, they are all
one-joke characters. Conspiracy Brother (Dave Chapelle, Screwed,
Blue Streak) spouts all sorts of conspiracies about blacks and
whites, and Lance (Neil Patrick Harris, The
Next Best Thing, The Wedding Dress) is the white man who
lost in black culture. Undercover Brother is shallow and stupid,
yet manages to retain a sense of loopy fun that movies like this need
in order to make people laugh. After it's over, nobody will remember much
of anything, except that they did laugh.